Birds' Eye Views

Every day new birds return to Bondi Village and north Muskoka. Some come to spend the summer.

Some are just passing through.

This week we welcomed home a pair of Belted Kingfishers.  Their call is described as a "coarse rattle" but that doesn't do it justice. It is certainly distinctive -- and will cue you to start watching for these fast flyers.  They are delightful birds, with a really funky Mohawk crest, and if you ever have the opportunity to sit quietly on a bank and watch them fish, it will both entertain and educate you tremendously.

Saturday, while I was outside raking, I was suddenly surrounded by a flight of tree swallows.  These charming birds are among my favourites. They not only consume prodigious quantities of mosquitoes and blackflies during their swooping soaring flight, they are just beautiful to watch in the air, skimming over the lake surface for a quick drink, gathering on the wires to chatter amongst themselves.  I am always happy to see them return. But here's the thing.  For as long as I can recall, you could virtually set your calendar by the swallows' return.   They appeared in the sky during the week of April 21 to 28.  Very rarely, they came late.  The last few years, they have come in at the beginning of that date range, or a day or so early.  This year... March 6. I mean, Seriously????

Yesterday the chickens were glancing nervously skyward -- and since last week we welcomed back a pair of Red Shouldered Hawks, Here is another bird with an easily identifiable and unmistakeable call. I thought that might be the cause of their distress. Not so. 

Circling over the field behind the stable were two turkey vultures.  I confess to a small fondness for these big birds, who hang on the air currents, their distinct 'fingertips' extended.  Last year, when I was still wearing an eye patch following retinal surgery, the fine people at Muskoka Wildlife Centre loaned me Barfolemew, their resident vulture, to be my "pirate's parrot" at a fund-raiser for A Wing and a Prayer bird rescue.

I am waiting patiently for the return of our Eastern Bluebirds.  This time of year is a paradise for bird-watchers, as all the species return to the north.  Not only that, away from the city you can actually hear the sounds of the Earth and its creatures.  Noise is as polluting as light, or garbage... the constant bombardment of sound in the city is not good for living things.   We need to be unplugging and stepping out of the soundscape of civilization, stepping into the quiet of the natural world, listening for and to our non-human neighbours out there.    They have plenty to tell us, if we can only hear them.